Military scholars see Uganda’s drug-making ambitions as a model for Africa

What the report says

The Observer reported that 36 senior military scholars from the Malian Army War College visited Dei BioPharma’s manufacturing campus in Matugga, outside Kampala, during a strategic study tour hosted by the Uganda People’s Defence Forces from July 13 to 17. The delegation was led by Brig. Gen. Moussa Yoro Kante, Director of Education of the Mali Defence Forces, and included officers from Mali, Guinea-Conakry, Burkina Faso, Niger, Morocco, Togo, Chad, Senegal and Cameroon.

The visit framed pharmaceutical production as part of national and continental security, with the officers examining Uganda’s efforts to build local capacity for medicines and vaccines rather than military hardware. According to the report, Dei BioPharma was chosen as a stop because of its role in Uganda’s domestic drug-manufacturing ambitions. Kante praised the facility and said the officers would take its example back to their countries.

Dei BioPharma founder and managing director Dr. Matthias Magoola said Africa remains heavily dependent on imported medicines, citing a figure of about 85 percent, and argued that the main constraint is technology. He said the company has developed technologies, secured U.S. patents and built capacity to manufacture medicines and vaccines in Uganda. He also said Uganda could share pharmaceutical formulas with African countries through formal requests linked to President Yoweri Museveni’s Pan-African cooperation agenda.

The Observer said the company, founded in 2014, operates a complex of more than 250 acres intended to produce medicines for malaria, HIV, cancer, insulin, monoclonal antibodies and mRNA-based products. The tour formed part of broader Uganda-Mali defence cooperation, including training exchanges between the UPDF and Malian forces.